HONEYPAD
Since Sunstar's death, she feared there was only treachery in the world. Leading the dawn patrol back through the bramble tunnel, Honeypad felt her hackles rise when there was no sentry there to greet them.
She glanced around suspiciously, eyes sweeping the strangely quiet dens. The brambles grew new shoots, and the hawthorn and rowan blossomed with clusters of white flowers. Bees droned clumsily through the air, crawling over the cream petals. But it was strangely… quiet.
Sootfang, Hazelwhisker, and Smokestripe trotted just behind her as she cut across the green hollow, making her way toward the Hollow Ash. But the last thing she expected was for a voice to ring out from the leader's den.
"Who approaches?" Hollypaw called out from within the Ash.
"Your clanmates and your deputy," Sootfang snapped from Honeypad's side.
Honeypad's fur was bushed out when yet another cat stepped out from the entrance to the leader's den, blocking their entry. And there were still more scents and shapes moving within as they approached.
Cloverfern was standing sentry in front of the Hollow Ash, rather than the camp entrance. "Whoever it is, you may not be let in," she said.
"You toad-brain, is that how you speak to the deputy?" Sootfang scoffed in disbelief, flattening her ears.
"StarClan protect her!" Hollypaw's voice rang from somewhere inside the den. Honeypad craned her head to try and peer over Cloverfern's shoulder and who else might be hidden inside her den. Her den. "We do nothing besides what we are willed."
"Who willed you?!" Honeypad demanded, her ears pinned back now too as Cloverfern showed the hint of a defensive snarl. "Or whose will stands but mine? There's no deputy of LionClan except for me. Get out of my den! Should I be ordered around by a medicine cat apprentice?"
Hazelwhisker and Smokestripe approached as if to shove their clanmate aside, only to be warded off with a deep, menacing growl in Cloverfern's throat. More cats were poking their heads out of their dens now around the clearing, elders and queens, apprentices and warriors.
Another cat emerged from inside the Ash to stand shoulder to shoulder with Cloverfern, this warrior's fur pale and dappled like bracken. "Sootfang, Hazelwhisker, Smokestripe, stand back," Fleckfur warned.
"You can't be serious," Smokestripe snorted.
"I said, get out of my den!" Honeypad roared. "I am the deputy of LionClan!"
"Have patience, Honeypad," Fleckfur said, leaning back, but not retreating. "I may not let you pass. Our medicine cat forbids it. Elmseed has given express commandment that you or no other warrior should sleep in the nest that belongs to our next leader—"
"Faint-hearted mouse, do you put her authority over mine?" Honeypad hissed, raking her claws through the dirt. "That arrogant fox, that even Sunstar couldn't stand? You are no friend to the code or your Clan, the longer you stand here and defy me. Out, or I'll shut you out shortly."
"Pass for our deputy, or we'll drag you out!" Hazelwhisker yowled.
Finally, the hidden snake made itself known. Elmseed emerged from the medicine den, tail lashing as she padded across the clearing toward them.
"How now, ambitious Honeypad, what is the meaning of this?" the medicine cat called out.
"All those herbs have turned your brain giddy!" Honeypad shouted at her. "Do you command me to be shut out of the leader's den?"
"I do, since you are not the leader of LionClan." All the Clan still at camp were on their paws now, murmurs and jeers rippling through the camp.
"Senior warriors have always met inside the Hollow Ash!"
Elmseed narrowed her eyes, tail whipping. "And is that why you and Waspclaw have made your nest there too? You forget your oath to Sunstar."
"Stand back, you scheming weasel," Honeypad rasped, showing her teeth. If the medicine cat came a fox-length closer, she couldn't promise she wouldn't pounce on her. "You quack that let my brother die. If you proceed in this insolence, you'll need a medicine cat yourself."
"No, you stand back; I will not budge a mouse-length!" Elmseed declared. "As long as I live, no usurper shall sleep in the leader's den."
Honeypad strode toward her now as the murmurs from the surrounding cats grew. "I will not kill you, but I will drive you back, and carry you back to the medicine den by the scruff like a kit."
"Do what you dare!" Elmseed growled with a puff of her chest, not budging a mouse-length back, true to her word. "Even you would not use violence against a medicine cat—"
She slapped the taste out of the medicine cat's mouth, sending Elmseed tumbling back to a spike of gasps from the assembled crowd.
"What?" Honeypad spat as Elmseed struggled to her feet, batting her down with another sheathed paw. "Am I dared?" The deputy glanced around the clearing now, her eyes two narrow orange slits. "All loyal to LionClan and to me! Any cat inside the Ash, drag them out! Elmseed, beware your tail; I mean to tug you up and down this camp, medicine cat or not."
"Honeypad," Elmseed growled, face contorted in rage now. "You will answer this before StarClan!"
"At least I have hope I'll find StarClan, you hypocrite." All around them, cats of all ages and ranks were starting to circle each other, some arguing, some exchanging growls and disgusted looks.
Cloverfern shoved roughly at Smokestripe as she tried to advance forward. In front of the warrior's den, Minkeyes and Frostsky were suddenly spitting hot venom at each other, their curses and insults barely comprehensible over the other mad chattering spreading through the green hollow.
Even the queens bickered. Ruddsnout and Mistlespeck were in each other's whiskers, Shademist shouting derision from over Ruddsnout's shoulder, all their hackles raised and paws poised as if to swat at each other. All Mistpelt could do was curl her tail protectively around an assorted bundle of kits.
And Honeypad's mate, Waspclaw, stirring faithfully forward. When she swiped her unsheathed claws at Hornfoot, all pandemonium broke out. Railpaw wrestled with Mothpaw, Swiftstorm yowled in rage and pain.
Glancing around to survey the sudden chaos, she felt the wind knocked out from her chest as a weight crashed into her side and forced her to the ground. Elmseed stood over her, raining a flurry of mad scratches on the deputy, until Honeypad surged to her paws and planted the crown of her skull directly into Elmseed's sternum.
That sent her flying back and crumpling to the ground, the medicine cat's eyes almost bulging out of her head as she wheezed from the monstrous hit.
"Your lack of battle training shows, medicine cat," Honeypad growled, making Elmseed caterwaul as she snapped her jaws and yanked the brown she-cat's tail.
From somewhere in the hurly-burly, she could hear Redpaw wailing like a kit. "Stop, stop fighting!" he sobbed, cowering behind the Ash. "Don't fight! I don't want you to fight!"
The elders swarmed through the crowd, Owlswoop shouting for calm and Ivyflower trying to force herself between the quarreling queens.
"ENOUGH!" a great voice bellowed from the rough-swaying bough of the Hollow Ash, like rocks tumbling down a mountainside. "STOP THIS MADNESS!" Only then did the building rage seem to dissolve, warriors and apprentices breaking apart from each other, all heads turning to the tom perched in the sacred tree.
A tense, uneasy silence returned, just for a moment, as Old Boulderstep glared down at the deputy and the medicine cat.
"Fie!" the elder growled. "You both lead our Clan. Should you so disgracefully break the peace and sanctuary of the Clan camp?"
"Peace, Boulderstep," Honeypad mewed, sheathing her claws as Elmseed continued to writhe on the ground, quietly cursing. "The medicine cat has wronged me. Here's Elmseed, with no regard for the code or rank. She undermines my authority and seeks to make her voice greater than any other cat in the Clan!"
Elmseed looked up from the ground, golden eyes glowing with hate and simmering fury. "Here's Honeypad," she hissed. "One that still motions war and never peace, sending our youth to slaughter! That seeks to overthrow StarClan's will! Because she is deputy, she means to become leader, do not be fooled by her smooth words!"
"I will not answer you with words," Honeypad hissed again, "but blows!" She lunged at the medicine cat again, and the green hollow exploded with yowls once again.
"Stop! Peace, LionClan, peace!" Boulderstep shouted.
"All warriors of LionClan!" Owlswoop rasped, the elder raising his voice above the cacophony. "If you love your Clan, disperse and return to your dens! In StarClan's name and your loyalty to the warrior code, be clanmates again!"
Honeypad, with a reluctant growl, let off where she kept the medicine cat pinned, striding away with an agitated twitch of her tail. "Do as Owlswoop says!" she echoed, before whirling back on Elmseed. Cats hesitantly backed off from each other, some streaming out the bramble tunnel, others slinking back to their nests or giving certain cats a wide berth. "I will not be a code-breaker. But we will meet and resolve this once and for all."
"Oh, Honeypad, we will meet; to your cost, to be sure," Elmseed sneered, lifting herself from the dust. Her voice dropped into a whispered hiss. "I will have your heart-blood for this day's work."
"I'll club any warrior remaining in this clearing!" Boulderstep roared again, and cats scurried with more urgency. "Leader, deputy, medicine cat, queen, apprentice, kit! All warriors of LionClan disperse!"
"Boulderstep, farewell," Honeypad said shortly, turning to pad back to the leader's den. At least now, no cat blocked her way to the Hollow Ash, but the taste of their lingering scents in the air was almost enough to make her hackles rise again. "You speak for the good of all."
"Honeypad!" Elmseed called after her as she walked away. "Guard your head!"